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Colorado proposes bigger oil and gas drilling setbacks from homes

Colorado oil and gas regulators have proposed requirements to increase the minimum distance between homes and drill sites and to mitigate impacts of drilling within 1,000 feet of residences.

The draft rule, issued Monday by the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission, would ban drilling within 500 feet of a home anywhere in the state.

Regulators, the industry and environmental and community groups have wrestled for a year — as drilling has accelerated on the Front Range — over how close to homes wells can be drilled.

Environmentalists and homeowners called for at least a 1,000-foot setback. The industry supported keeping it at the current 350-foot setback in developed areas.

The state proposal aims to allow drilling as close as 500 feet with mitigation requirements.

"These proposals contain mitigation standards unprecedented nationally," Matt Lepore, director of the oil and gas commission, said in a statement.

The proposal, however, was criticized by industry and environmental groups.

"The state has yet to show it understands that drilling poses a health threat," said Mike Chiropolos, an attorney with Western Resources Advocates, a Boulder-based environmental policy group.

"Drilling turns people's quality of life upside down, and the only safeguard is some distance," said Chiropolos, who is representing six environmental groups before the commission.

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The setback standard should be "health-based, and those studies haven't been done," said April Beach, a spokeswoman for Erie Rising, a community-based group.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association has said a blanket setback is the wrong approach, and that setbacks need to be made on a case-by-case basis.

"COGA supports an alternate rule, which takes this holistic approach," said Doug Flanders, an association spokesman.

The state's proposal requires wells 1,000 feet or closer to a home to take steps such as using pit-less drilling, steel berms, strict dust and light controls and the capture of gases to reduce odors and emissions.

Operators would have to engage in an expanded notice and outreach with area residents and local government.

Wells could not be drilled within 1,000 feet of a school, nursing home or hospital without a hearing before the commission.

The commission, whose members are appointed by the governor, also proposed requiring tests of water wells near the site before and after drilling to ensure water quality.

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